NumbersUSA Quietly Launches Deceptive New DACA “Facts” Website

Aaron Patrick Flanagan • Oct 17, 2012

Roy Beck , top, presenting at the racist Council of Conservative Citizens National Gathering in 1997

As has been the case since the middle of August, when the DACA plan to alleviate pressures on young-unauthorized immigrants went into effect, the anti-immigrant movement has bombarded the Obama Administration and the immigration arms of the federal government with a litany of questions regarding the plan. They’re pleading for answers and transparency.

Truth be told, that’s fair enough.

But here’s a question for the anti-immigrant movement—why would a stalwart group, one of the most powerful national organizations within that movement, like NumbersUSA spend the time, energy, and resources to launch a brand-new website that focuses on debunking so-called DACA myths, but then essentially tell no one at all that it has done so?

Only those within NumbersUSA, a cornerstone of the anti-immigrant movement, can answer that question, as searches of its website turn up absolutely zero mentions of its new site, DacaFacts.com.

Through a proxy server in Scottsdale, Arizona, a full 2,283.5 miles from the group’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, NumbersUSA registered the site DacaFacts.com about a month ago on September 12. Last updated on October 9, this site represents nothing more than an under-handed attempt by NumbersUSA to subtly re-frame its own anti-immigrant messaging in the disguise of an innocuous, un-biased website existing simply to provide John Q. WebSurfer with some legitimately sourced information about DACA recipients. (50% of the sources cited on the website stem from one politician, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who works in an official capacity on behalf of the anti-immigrant movement via his seat on the Executive Committee of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, by the way.)

In actuality the content of this website is nothing more than NumbersUSA’s anti-DREAM Act messaging re-packaged as sincere and accessible talking points. The kind they hope anyone can and will repeat.

The kind that, you know, carefully remind readers that DACA is a full-on amnesty, that DACA will expose innocent Americans to the violent whims of hardened criminals, that DACA is not about children at all, that DACA will destroy the American worker and our economy, that DACA is an illegal act put forth by a President-turned-Ruler, that DACA will result in a chain migration of sorts for recipients’ elders, that DACA is already rife with blatant fraud, and that applicants who don’t meet standards will automatically gain life-long amnesty simply because they applied.

Where’s NumbersUSA’s proof? Well, just take their word for it. For them, the burden of proof lies solely on the government. In a move that gestures at the penning of a conspiracy theory, DacaFacts.com is littered with the repetition a of single two-word phrase presented in a red, bolded, quite large-font: “FACTS WITHHELD.”

“FACTS WITHHELD” certainly applies to the website’s owners, as well.

After all, only a small, 11-point font branding at the bottom of each web-page traces the site back to NumbersUSA; in fact, DacaFacts.com presents absolutely no information about its parent organization whatsoever. And, of course, there is a very good reason for that.

NumbersUSA certainly doesn’t want John Q. WebSurfer knowing the following facts about Roy Beck, founding head of the group, and his organization’s well-recorded past of fervently executed anti-immigrant activism:

Presenting the same research he would use to launch his group, Roy Beck spoke to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) National Gathering in 1996. The white nationalist CofCC openly refers to Black and African Americans as “a retrograde species of humanity.”

Roy Beck’s long-time mentor of nearly two decades is John Tanton, the eugenics proponent who is widely regarded as the founder and financial figurehead of the contemporary anti-immigrant movement. One of the fledgling groups Tanton fostered over the last 40 years was Beck’s own NumbersUSA, as Tanton was both crucial in securing early funding for Beck and helping him mold his new group’s messaging. Two years ago Beck even spent vacation time visiting Tanton in Petosky, MI, where the latter resides.

Those seeking to diminish Tanton’s long relationship of investment in Beck won’t impart the following either: according to IRS tax documents, from 1994 to 2001, when Beck began taking up the reigns of NumbersUSA full-time, Tanton paid Beck a grand total of $837,451. Beck was paid as a “consultant” through Tanton’s foundation, U.S., Inc.

Until at least the Spring 2001 issue, Beck served as the Washington, DC, editor of Tanton’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant journal The Social Contract, which is published by Tanton’s press of the same name. He runs the press to this day.

Roy Beck was and may still be on the advisory board of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration (MCRI). MCRI is listed as an official state contact group of the wholly anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR was started by Tanton in 1979, and remains the flagship organization within his constellation of groups.

NumbersUSA is presently under intense criticism and pressure for airing a television ad during the first of the 2012 presidential debates that purposefully pits Black and African American communities against their immigrant neighbors. Last Friday Beck defended his group’s ads, explaining that they expose the fact that immigration advocates don’t care about black people.

And so, if you are in fact an immigrant, or someone who cares about an immigrant or immigrants, their rights, or just the basic rights of anyone present in the US period, know this—NumbersUSA is against you and those you care about, and their under-handed efforts—like DacaFacts.com—that are designed to target and to misdirect well-meaning information-seeking individuals prove it.